Those of us who entertain a rigid notion as to what fiction—or reality, for that matter—must be may be of opinion that truth can be noun

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Ethic Cleansing

It is in J. Heinrich Arnold’s Freedom From Sinful Thoughts I read where he talks about hearing hateful remarks against Jews at the Gasthaus, his father Eberhard Arnold remarks “It may only be evil talk now,” and what begins as hate speech leads to Holocaust. That was 1920s. Year 2002 is when I am reading it, a time I am also reading Khushwant Singh’s columns in Hindustan Times. He writes one on an anomaly called saffronization just before he goes on to pen his End of India. Around the same time, Vir Sanghvi heretofore critical of the First World’s tactics concerning Iraq, once the invasion bustles with opportunities takes a nosedive, in a manner only Chanakyan, suggests we aid to build and dip our finger in the well of oil. Year 2010, after her shamanic journey through the jungle Arundhati Roy talks about the sinister purpose behind demonizing the poorest people, who aren't consumers, in the country.

It all starts with slurs, like gossip at workplace, and when the time is ripe for it though you are not the one doing the killing—it could be the slaughter of a random lost tribe, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs or Tibetans, Americans at soup kitchen, Hindus in Bangladesh, Tamils in Lanka—you feel, rather think, the bloodshed is justified. You think it is justified not because you sought to look into the heart of the matter that lies beyond what the powers that be and popular media purport to be true but because the term ethnic cleansing aided by popular opinion resonates right within you. I suggest you call that sort of shooting without aiming Ethic Cleansing. I am sure there is morbid pleasure to be had from it. Not that you wish to be ethic cleansed. Nor do I wish it for you.